Disclosed herein is an apparatus and method that adjusts cleaning station operation in a printing apparatus.
Presently, image output devices, such as printers, multifunction media devices, xerographic machines, ink jet printers, and other devices produce images on media sheets, such as paper, substrates, transparencies, plastic, cardboard, or other media sheets. To produce an image, a photoreceptor transfers marking material, such as toner, ink jet ink, or other marking material, to a media sheet to create a latent image on the media sheet. A fuser assembly then affixes or fuses the latent image to the media sheet by applying heat and/or pressure to the media sheet. After the image is affixed to the media sheet, a cleaning station uses a rotating cleaning brush to clean residual marking material and other debris off the photoreceptor.
Unfortunately, photoreceptor cleaning is abrasive and erodes the photoreceptor surface and performance over time. Current cleaning implementations are designed for stress cases involving high density solids and lines of significant length in the photoreceptor process direction. Thus, current cleaning implementations involve higher biases and faster cleaning brush revolutions per minute (RPM's) which can adversely impact both the system reliability from the higher bias and the print quality from faster RPM's. Current cleaning implementations do not adjust cleaning station operation based on the type of image on the photoreceptor.
Thus, there is a need for an apparatus and method that adjusts cleaning station operation in a printing apparatus.